de Cuisson en France

For some strange reason I have had a serious urge to bake for the last week. Maybe becuase I overdosed on Red Velvet cake when I was home and I am going through withdrawls... I really have no idea, especially because I am NOT a baker. Not even a little bit. I love cooking always have , but that is mostly becuase when cooking there is the freedom to mix and match and sprinkle a little of this and a little of that. Baking on the other hand is precise and scary and revolves a bit too much around Math for my liking. Anyone who knows me, knows that Math and I DO NOT MIX - we are sort of like oil and water (funny enough those are also two things commonly found in baking recipes, I am sooooooooo hysterical sometimes I can't even stand it). Back to the baking... after finding an amazing osunding recipe for Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies I was ready and determined to make this happen. It has been quite the process. First I realised I didn't even have a pan to bake in - quick trip to Monoprix to find something that would work. Then after searching around for all of the ingredients, I came to the next realisation which put a huge damper on this whole potential project - I have NO IDEA what on earth the ingredients are translated into French. Seriously I was ok when it came to flour (farine), butter (beurre) and eggs (oeuf), heck I can even find a large egg (gros oeuf) but then came the difficult things... for example Baking Powder - I had no idea where to even start... so I stood in front of the baking aisle in Monoprox after work one evening and pulled up my trusty buddy - Google Translate on my even more trusted buddy, my iPhone, and started searching away. The worst part was once I found something that could have been it I couldn't remember if i needed baking soda or baking powder and what on earth the difference was in general, after my 25 minuites of translating then realising I still had no clue which one I needed, I began wishing for Mommy. So "why not just buy both" I thought... then came the search for baking cocoa - this is when I really started wishing for my Ma. Does baking coca have sugar or not and why on earth are there so many choices?!?!?! After making my best judgement about what resembled that box of Hershey's baking coca powder stuff, the biggest road block came into play - red food coloring, pretty much impossible to find in this lovely country and a serious neccesity for Red Velvet anything... at this point, after spending aover an hour and a half in Monoprix, my patience were gone, I was starving and I wasn't even halfway through the ingredient list. I won't lie - I plopped my basket of random selections that resembled baking goods down in the baking aisle and marched myself home, picked up some yummy China chow at the place across the street from ma maison, cracked open a bottle of wine and re-evaluated my mission to make a tasty treat. After some research I think I discovered what most of the baking supplies were that I needed when the next problem came into play. The measurement system in France is 100% absolutley not the same as the one in the US - meaning that my recipe now required some serious conversion... I don't know if you have ever tried to convert cups of flour into grams (especially when you aren't a mathematician) but as mentioned before baking is a science somehting that needs to be handled with care - or else you could end up with an explosion in your oven, hockey puck type treats or even worse a gooey mess in a pan that never turns into anything... needless to say, I have been working on this potential project for a week now and nothing delicious has come out of it. I have researched, purchsed the correct baking supplies and even found a recipe that sounds tasty and is in French (ingredients and measurments - now we just have to hope my French reading level is as good as I assume it is)!! Now the mission is to get my butt back to the store, buy all of the supplies I need and make it happen. Who knows, maybe baking will become my new past time and I can be the next Betty Crocker - if that happens I think I will bring awesome aprons into style...

Apres-Soeleil and Sushi

Big day for me. Had my first sushi lunch while in France. It was no Ginza (and oh do I miss Ginza, for those of you unfamiliar Ginza is the tasty Sushi/Hibachi place down the street form work. We were frequent fliers there). BUT I have to be honest I enjoyed every minute of it. Especially the delightful beef and cheese wonder-melt on a stick. Ok so that is not what it is called but they should rename it. Anyone who takes cheese puts it on a skewer and wraps it with teriyaki beef is a GENIUS!!!!! Today's lunch hour did more than enlighten me to this tasty little treat it also made me realize just how awfully sunburnt my poor shoulders and arms are. As we walked to the sushi restaurant I was desperately looking for shade. Every time the sun hit me it felt like -well what I imagine it would be like to be a vampire going into the sun - little Twilight love there. I honestly don't even remember the last time I was this red. As the day progressed anytime anything came close to touching my shoulders (or my pants rubbed my knees - also the color of a fresh new red crayola crayon) I wanted to scream.  The choice was made for me, aloe vera was a must. As soon as I got off the Metro after worked I walked directly to the little Monoprix.

Monoprix is the grocery store at the end of my street. 

For future reference:

Little Monoprix = the Target type store on one side of the street

Big Monoprix = The Stop and Shop type grocery store on the other side of the street

Never in a million years did I think that buying some aloe vera would be so difficult. One would think it is the green ooey gooey stuff in the bottle with the picture of an aloe plant on the front. Well folks - Welcome to France - they have every other kind of lotion out there, olive oil lotion, grapefruit lotion, jasmine and honey lotion and I even saw a tomato lotion (no joke). Finally after the longest and one of the most painful hours of my life, I spotted a word I recognized "Apres" on a little tiny bottle by the tomato lotion. Now apres means after and the reason I know this is because in the bathroom at work there is a nice little sign across from the toilet asking to, "Please use the brush after (apres) you use the toilet." They like things clean here apparently. Either way that word was music to my eyes because directly apres the word apres was the word soeleil which I also recognized and drumroll please - it means  SUN!! Thank you weather.com in French. Putting the two together was one of the most magical things I have done since I have been here. Now I am pretty sure there is no aloe in it but it feels delightful and cool and hydrating on my extra crispy skin. Plus as an extra perk I smell like I just returned from delightful tropical island. Now if only I had a strawberry margarita that was served to me in a coconut........